UK Careers

Most people who are successful in their particular areas of expertise have not got to where they are overnight. What you see is the polished product and there has been a lot of polishing going on behind the scenes to get there.

The life of a zero hours employee is in many ways similar to that of a freelancer. Compare a graphic designer working in a company to a freelance designer. The freelancer has to hustle for new work, they need to network, they need to produce work, and they only ever get paid as each project is completed. They are paid only for their output...

The work of raising children doesn't seem to be viewed with real respect. If it were, parental leave for working parents would be fully paid, it would last longer, and it would include equal amounts of time for both parents.

Females account for between 15-20% of engineering and computer science students at universities in the UK. I had heard the numbers, but they had failed to capture just what it would feel like to find yourself in a large lecture room filled with 150 students, only 20 of whom were female.

Networking is still left off the syllabus at our schools and universities. I gave a talk to 40 undergraduate students from the Netherlands recently. Speaking to them before the presentations, very few of them were aware of networking, other than perhaps as some concept that they had been told would be important to them.

I used to be a hard-working corporate woman. My best shoulder firmly attached to the wheel, I dedicated my life to work. Being a television foreign correspondent in a city you could call the centre of the Western world (London) meant I had to drop everything when news broke.

In the past few years there has been a huge soar in the number of people considering entrepreneurship as a career and actually taking the leap into starting their own business. Entrepreneurs are the new rock stars!

Why is there such an unwillingness or lack of proactive effort to move with the times? If you pride yourself on developing relevant brand-marketing strategies, it's crucial to diversify the PR employee roster.

Politicians, while united in their view that social mobility needs to improve, differ in their solutions on how to accelerate it. The gap between poor and better-off students is narrowing, but there is still a long way to go.

The seduction of becoming rich has the power to grip the imagination and inspire endless daydreams of 'making it big'. Moreso for those from less privileged backgrounds, the prospect of escaping the struggles of financial lack can drive a particularly all-encompassing pursuit of large living.

Self awareness is the first and most influential aspect of EI: the few who are gifted with true self awareness have a realistic understanding of how what they feel affects what they do. They also understand which situations trigger certain emotional responses in themselves and others.

One in seven British employees has lost their job since the beginning of the recession in 2008, but when I was being made redundant at 23, all the advice and personal stories I could find were aimed at people in their thirties and above, meaning I felt confused and isolated.

I haven't been freelancing for long, but I've learnt very quickly what things you should and shouldn't do. That's not to say I've mastered NOT doing these things - I'm still learning (there's a lot of them) - but putting them down on paper sure makes it easier.

I remember starting my career as an intern in the city, working with my mentor to figure out my steps up the ladder and how quickly I could each hit each title. My career remained as fluid over the next five years. This is what I learned.

Working abroad is a great option for independent travellers as it can give you a base in a foreign location as you replenish your cash reserves. Several longer term options are well known - teaching English and au-pairing for example - but what about short term job opportunities?

Self-discipline is a common problem for freelancers. Whether you're checking social media or getting distracted by your cat, it's easy to stray from your work without a boss breathing down your neck, which causes all sort of problems.

I quit my office job in 2008, utterly frazzled and having just born the brunt of being managed by a terrible boss. I was exhausted, disillusioned with journalism, and just wanted an environment where I wasn't being bellowed at daily. Freelancing seemed the perfect option.

Despite the highs and inevitable lows of being a business developer for the last 20 years, I've not only managed to create a great team since 2000 but we've also changed the way our clients think about how to open doors from cold.

To make sure your CV stands out from the crowd, instantly grabbing an employer's attention, it is vital to start developing a professional and concise overview of your skills and experience as early into your degree as possible. Here are some top tips to help you do so...

"Start before you're ready" ... What does it mean? It means to "whisper #YOLO to the wind" and delve into something before all your cards are dealt, because, let's face it - so many of us wait for the right moment and that moment never comes.